John David Mercer/Press-RegisterJesse Cook plays Thursday night at the Mobile Saenger Theatre.Renowned Canadian guitarist Jesse Cook probably had the impression Mobile audiences are quiet, calm, reasonable congregations — right up until the moment he opened the floor to questions.

The first, quick as a shot: “Are you married?” The second: “How was the herb in Colombia?” He handled the first with wit, and apologized for being so square that it took him a while to understand the second.

Then he got one that crystallized the whole experience of his Thursday night concert at the Mobile Saenger Theatre.

The questioner observed, with considerable forcefulness, that Cook’s music draws on the musical traditions of many countries. How, he wanted to know, does Cook keep it all straight?

“The secret is, I really don’t,” Cook said. “I like to get lost.”

Cook’s compositions aren’t the simplest thing to sum up. He began his musical life with classical training, then adopted flamenco as the core of his sound. But it’s a contemporary form, sometimes called nuevo flamenco, that freely borrows from other genres and cultures.

His most recent album, “The Rumba Foundation,” started as a study of European-Cuban rhythms. But he wound up recording it in Colombia (hence the question about that country’s flora), and it also includes one track inspired by the music of India’s “Bollywood” films.

Bottom line: He knows a lot of interesting places to get lost. With the help of a phenomenal band, he took his listeners to many of them in the space of a couple of hours.

The audience of about 500 wasn’t large, by pop music standards, but for a performer with relatively little mainstream name recognition, making his first appearance in the area, it was quite respectable. Cook himself said he was “thrilled and shocked at the same time” by the turnout and seemed to mean it, though he routinely plays to vastly larger crowds at international jazz festivals.

With equal sincerity, Cook praised Mobile for having preserved much of its historical character.

He also spoke highly of Roman Street, the southwest Alabama-based quintet that opened the night. The group received a standing ovation and was mobbed in the lobby afterward, where albums, T-shirts and even a new “Roman Street” coffee blend from Serda’s Coffee were available.

Cook didn’t have coffee, but he did have a unique way of leading a world tour. By the end of the night, his “flamenco dance party” had many of his listeners cavorting in the aisles.

For them in particular, getting lost with Cook seemed to be a beautiful thing.